Smoking is a known form of preparing food and other organic material wherein smoke, and often heat, are applied for cooking, flavoring, and/or preserving. Smoke can be formed from any combustion source, including a wood or charcoal fire, which may also provide heat, smoking chips or smoldering coals, or from food itself. Produced smoke may be trapped, such as in a smoking box or covered barbeque pit, for example, for exposure to the cooking object, or smoke may be directed onto the cooking object. Given a sufficient smoky atmosphere, organic material, including meats, vegetables, or any other food, can absorb and/or react with ash and incomplete combustion material in the smoke, adding flavor, color, and/or preservation qualities.
Known smoking devices that trap smoke include drum smokers, smoking pits, smoke houses, and smoking boxes. Smoking boxes are conventionally enclosures that can produce their own smoke but use an external heat source, such that they are useable with any ventilated cooking environment, including large commercial heating surfaces or smaller, conventional home charcoal, electric, or gas grills. For example, food and a smoking material, such as wood chips or pellets, can be placed in a smoking box and set on a gas, electric, or charcoal grill to provide heat. The smoking material smokes in the box from the heat, and the box traps the smoke such that the food is sufficiently exposed to the smoke. Conventional smoking boxes can include small openings in the top of the box to allow some rising smoke to escape, preventing any pressure buildup, while trapping the majority of smoke within the smoking box for exposure to food.